Saturday, March 14 ~ Do they have pie in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico for Pi Day?
After a comfortable night’s sleep, we woke up ready toenjoy a full day of exploring Old San Juan, Puerto Rico! We left the hotel and walked 4 blocks east to have breakfast at Cafe Mallorca. When we arrived at around 10am, it was busy, but there was a table available for us to be seated immediately. I loved that they had a guy playing a trumpet at the front of the restaurant… such a quaint atmosphere!
We both ordered mallorcas with eggs and cheese. While the waiter was quick to take our orders and bring us our food, we had very slow service in waiting for our bill, and then we had to wait in a slow-moving line to pay at the register in the front of the restaurant.
We left the restaurant at around 11am and walked a few blocks to San Cristobal fort. With little white puffy clouds dotting the sky, the views from the fort were amazing! We spent a little over an hour walking around and taking lots of photos.
The view looking back towards the cruise pier… tomorrow, the Valor will be docked here and waiting for us to board!!
Looking west towards El Morro fort
I found a fun app that lets you edit your photos with lots of different effects. I really love how these turned out….
After we finished at El Cristobal fort, we spent 20 minutes walking through the city to El Morro fort. The walk was mostly flat with a few moments of uphill climb, and there were narrow sidewalks the whole way. I love the cobblestone streets and how colorful all of the buildings are!
This must be the most beautiful cemetery in the world!
It was very windy as we walked across the huge lawn to the front of El Morro (notice my hair blowing in the wind!) There were lots of people flying kites and enjoying a picnic with their families on the lawn. If I lived in San Juan, I imagine that I would spend a ton of time out here too!
We spent another hour or so walking around El Morro and taking photos. There were brief periods of light rain, and very dark skies in the distance, but it was tolerable and there were plenty of places to seek cover from the rain.
Check out the amazing view from the women’s bathroom! haha
The day had finally arrived! After a full day at work, and a quick gel manicure for me, we were officially on vacation!!!
We went out to dinner at a local pizza place, then headedto the San Jose airport for our redeye flight to NY. Neither of us sleep well on planes, so it wasa long night, but the flight was otherwise uneventful. We pulled away from the gate 10 minutes early, and landed in NY 30 minutes early. My TV was broken (as it nearly always is), and the flight attendant gave me a $15 voucher as compensation… which I accidentally left in the seat-back pocket on the plane. Oops! I guess whoever sat in that seat after me will get a surprise if they check the pocket haha I didn’t sleep at all, but at least I got to watch a few episodes of House of Cards and Girls.
Friday, March 13 ~ Friday the 13th is no joke!!
We spent the morning with my parents during our layover. I hadn’t seen them since the fall, so it was nice to have a few hours to catch up (and any chance I get to have a NY bagel makes me happy!!) They drove us back to JFK and we found out our flight was delayed by an hour. Originally we were supposed to get to PR by 1:15pm. Then it got pushed back to a 6:15pm landing. Now we wouldn’t get there until nearly 8pm. Definitely a crummy way to start our trip, especially considering we didn’t sleep at all on the redeye last night. After a few hours, we noticed they kept pushing our departure time later and later, one hour at a time! Long story short, the plane we were originally scheduled on was delayed by 2 hours from leaving Tampa due to mechanical problems. Once it finally took off, it was diverted to Richmond, VA because one of the runways was closed at JFK so there was no where for it to land. Our flight ended up being delayed by over 4 hours, and we didn’t end up landing until 10pm. So much for our plans to get some mofongo and mojitos for dinner at Punto de Vista! I bought an over-priced sub-par salad from the airport for dinner. In total, it took us over 24 hours to get from San Jose, CA to San Juan, PR. We had our fingers crossed that we wouldn’t have any more problems on this vacation. This is the reason you should never fly in the same day as a cruise!!
We landed in Puerto Rico at 10pm, quickly hopped in a taxi to Old San Juan, and arrived at our hotel by 11pm. Taxis in Puerto Rico have regulated prices based on zones… it cost $19 for the taxi, plus a $2 surcharge for gas, plus $1 for each of our suitcases (we held our backpacks on our laps and were not charged for them). We prebooked a room at the Hotel Plaza de Armas a few months before the cruise. It was a good thing our flight didn’t get cancelled since I prepaid for the room and it was nonrefundable if you don’t cancel with at least 24 hours notice! I called the hotel from JFK airport to let them know we would be arriving late, and they reassured me that someone would be available to help us check in whenever we arrived. The hotel was a quaint boutique hotel in a great location in a plaza in the middle of town. It was walking distance to both of the forts and all the restaurants and hotspots in Old San Juan. We could have even walked to the cruise ship port if we didn’t have luggage to drag behind us! The hotel was a bit old, but it was clean and had both an air conditioner and an elevator (two must-haves for our hotel!) The one strange thing was that the hotel had a large open layout between the floors. I have stayed in Embassy Suites hotels with the same open layout and never had a problem, but I guess the walls are thinner in the Hotel Plaza de Armas because we could hear people talking in the halls of every floor, and we could hear people slamming their doors on every floor… all night long! We tried to use the fan from the air conditioner to dull the hallway noise, but it was definitely noticeable. We were so exhausted from not sleeping on the redeye that we both slept through the night, but it is something to be aware of if you are a light sleeper. I am very disappointed in myself… I never took photos of the hotel room!! I usually try to take room pictures when I first walk into the hotel room or cruise cabin, but I was so tired from the long day of travel that it slipped my mind. Sorry!!
I think I am setting a new record! Somehow this is my 3rd Carnival cruise in the last 3 years, as well as the 3rd time my ship has changed itineraries shortly after my sailing! I sailed on the Victory in 2012 on the Southern Caribbean route from San Juan, but then it switched home ports with the Valor a few weeks later. Then I sailed on the Sunshine in September 2013 on a 12-night Mediterranean cruise which only had a few more sailings in Europe before she came over to the Caribbean. And now, once again, I am sailing on the Valor on her very last sailing out of Puerto Rico before she switches home ports with the Liberty! I’m starting to think that Carnival looks at my cruise bookings to decide which ships should change home ports haha
Anyway, I always write a detailed photo-filled review after my cruise, but I sometimes wonder if anyone benefits from it since most people only think to search for reviews of their ship, but when the ship changes itineraries and home ports, the old reviews become obsolete. I hope that some of you may find this review helpful, be it because you are sailing on the Valor and want to hear about the ship itself and see some current photos, or because you are sailing on the Liberty and want some ideas for planning what to do in each port on this very port-intensive itinerary. Worst case scenario: no one finds this review of any use, but I get to re-live my amazing vacation as I write it, and will end up with a travel log that I can look back on when I miss having sand between my toes. It’s a win win! As I always do, I will make all of my posts in a larger purple font so it is easier to find the review posts in case you want to skip over the comments.
So let’s start at the very beginning (It’s a very good place to start…) Back in July, my boyfriend (he doesn’t want me to use his name on here, so I’ll just call him J) and I were drinking margaritas on my patio, and talking about how much fun we had on our July 4th weekend trip to Vegas. We agreed that we wanted to travel somewhere together again, maybe in March for my birthday, and I suggested that we should take a cruise. I loved every port on the Southern Caribbean itinerary I took on the Victory a few years ago, so I suggested that we take the Valor cruise. We live in the San Francisco Bay Area, so we are quite far from Puerto Rico. I was scared to think of what the flights would cost us, but it was worth a shot. If the flights were too pricey, we could always look into taking a different cruise from Florida or California. I checked the JetBlue website and was totally shocked! They had roundtrip flights from San Jose (our closest airport) to Puerto Rico for $464 each!! The flights were not direct (which I knew, because we can only fly directly to NYC or Boston from San Jose), so we would have to connect at JFK airport in NY. So basically that meant that we were paying $116 for each leg of our flight (CA to NY, NY to PR, and back)! Holy cow!! I usually pay close to $500 just to fly from CA to NY! This was such an amazing deal on flights that we knew we had to book them ASAP. Fingers crossed that there won’t be a late-winter blizzard in NY to mess up our plans!
After the flights were booked, we called Carnival to book the cruise. I went back and forth a lot on what type of cabin we should book. On my last two Carnival cruises, I was very happy in my inside cabin mid-ship on deck 7. We were two floors up from the bars and nightlife, and two floors down from the buffet and pools on Lido deck. The problem was that on both of those cruises, I had the ‘two twin beds’ set up (the first cruise was with one of my best friends, and the second was with my mom). We arranged the beds to be perpendicular to each other, and had a ton of open floor space in the middle of the cabin so it never felt cramped. I also really liked the value of booking an inside cabin since I spend very little time in my room and prefer to invest most of my budget into activities in port.
This time around, I would be cruising with my boyfriend so we would have the ‘one king bed’ set up. Based on photos I have seen in other reviews, I knew that the one big bed in the middle of the inside cabin would leave nearly no floor space, and I was afraid we would be tripping over each other all week. That lead me to consider an oceanview cabin. It would be nice to have a couch to sit down on, and the extra square feet would be great for having more space to walk around. I ruled out a balcony cabin because they were twice the price, and there’s plenty of public outside space if we want to be outside so no reason to spend the extra money on that.
Once I decided on the oceanview cabin, I had to choose a deck. I definitely wanted to be mid-ship. The kitchen galley for the Valor takes up most of deck 3 mid-ship, and I have read many comments on these boards about the risks of having a cabin below the galley because they start preparing breakfast very early in the morning, and I did not want my beauty sleep to be interrupted by the banging or cleaning or whatever it is that they do up there! Our cruise was in March to coincide with my birthday, but I know that also is when colleges have spring break. It made me a bit nervous to book a cabin on deck 1 during spring break, fearing that college kids would pick the cheapest deck on the ship and pile 4 people into all the inside cabins, and then be really loud and annoying at night. In the end, I decided to ignore my fears and we went with cabin 1301: a mid-ship oceanview cabin on deck 1 (hoping that spring breakers would stick with cruises leaving from Florida instead of flying to Puerto Rico).
Now that our cruise was officially booked, it was time to start the countdown!!
This dry erase board hung on my fridge and I updated the countdown daily. I also picked up these 2 jars and filled them with one piece of candy for every day until we left for the cruise (I had candy corn in my jar, and J got peanut butter M&Ms- he was very happy with the candy choice I got for him haha). It was so fun to eat one piece of candy together each day as we looked forward to our upcoming vacation.
I spent the next few months researching on Cruise Critic and getting back into cruise-planning-mode (I really missed all the planning I had to do for the Mediterranean cruise in 2013!) I became obsessed with reading reviews and checking the ports of call boards for more information. J spent a lot of time teasing me for all the time I spent on Cruise Critic haha He claims that he likes to plan things and be involved, but I don’t think he knew how much of a planner I am until we started planning this cruise. We booked the cruise 8 months in advance and we had a lot of other things going on through the fall, so J didn’t want to worry about the cruise until after New Years. Well that just wouldn’t work for me! Half the fun of taking a cruise is all the anticipation and time spent planning for it! To me, the planning makes me feel like I am already partly on vacation, so there was no way I would wait until January to start my research. I continued to secretly research on Cruise Critic, and took lots of notes that I could share with J when he was ready to talk about it.
A few months after we booked, there was a big shake up on Cruise Critic: the Valor and the Liberty were going to switch home ports in March! After a brief freak-out session, I checked my booking and was happy to see that I was not affected (although I would have been thrilled if the swap happened in early March and I’d get to sail on the Liberty, I was just very thankful that we booked the 3/15 sailing and not the 3/22 sailing which was now essentially cancelled and turned into a repositioning cruise to Miami). As it turned out, we were taking the last sailing for the Valor on the Southern Caribbean route. I was a bit nervous that this would somehow affect the quality of my cruise. Would the staff be slacking off because it’s their last cruise on this itinerary? Would the ship stop re-stocking and run out of supplies? I was hopeful that the staff would step up and give us a fabulous vacation experience, but it did make me a little worried.
Then, in mid-November, I got a call that JetBlue cancelled the 10am flight we were scheduled to take from JFK to SJU, and they put us on a 6:59am flight instead. The slight problem with that is we were taking a redeye from California the night before, and we weren’t landing until 7:24am! It might be kinda hard to catch that connecting flight if we are still hovering somewhere over Pennsylvania!!
After some time on the phone with customer service, they were able to put us on a 2:15pm flight that afternoon. It was definitely annoying that they just took away our Friday afternoon of touring Puerto Rico, and that we would have to check into the hotel and grab dinner fairly late considering we wouldn’t get much sleep on the redeye the night before. At least on the bright side, my parents live 10 minutes from JFK airport, so we would get to have brunch with them during our layover! This is why you should never book flights on the day of the cruise! Luckily we were flying in on Friday so there was no chance of missing the ship as a result of this change. We crossed our fingers that this was the only hassle we’ll have to deal with for our vacation!!
Today was another one of the days I was most looking forward to on this vacation. Our plan was to visit all of the Gaudi buildings, and I saved it for today as an exciting end to our vacation (and because many other things in Barcelona are closed on Sunday, so it worked well to spend the day inside museums haha)
I got up around 8am, got ready, and went downstairs for another great breakfast at the hotel. At 9am, we left the hotel and took the metro to Sagrada Familia! The metro stop is literally right next to the church, and I thought this sign was pretty funny considering it is still under construction and they don’t know when it will be completed…
We walked across the street and around to the other side of the building to find the main entrance. Of course, there was a huge line to enter when we arrived, but that didn’t bother us because we pre-purchased our skip-the-line tickets for 10am. They allowed us to enter at 9:45am, and we waited in line for about 10 minutes to pick up the audio guides. Rick Steves does have a written walking tour for Sagrada Familia, but the audio guides on site only cost a few extra Euros, so we decided that would probably allow us to appreciate it more.
We spent a little over an hour walking around and taking photos. It is such an intricate and beautiful church with incredible details at every turn. I did remember to bring my skirt today, but it turned out that the guards didn’t care if your knees were covered or not. I saw many people inside wearing shorts, so I left my skirt in my purse and walked inside with no trouble.
Here are a bunch of photos from inside and outside the Sagrada Familia:
They were holding Sunday mass in a chapel downstairs, but these windows offered a good view to see inside…
We also walked through the museum in the basement. It was surprisingly interesting- they had photos of the various stages of construction, and they had models on display for how the church will look when it is completed.
This model shows the premise behind how Gaudi designed the church. It is meant to look like the mirror image of draped ropes hanging down.
Once we were finished, we took the metro to the Passeig de Gracia stop and walked along the Block of Discord up to Casa Batllo.
Casa Batllo was one of the houses that Antonio Gaudi built. It was whimsical and ornate, and there are no straight lines in the structure so all the corners and windows and door frames have rounded edges. The balconies on the front facade are designed to look like Venetian masks.
The line to enter was not too long when we arrived, but we had pre-purchased our tickets anyway. The tickets for Casa Batllo are bought for a specific day, but you can enter at any time, and it included the audio guide as well. We walked through all the floors and up to the roof. There were a lot of stairs involved, but they also have an elevator if you need it (just be prepared to wait a loooong time because the elevator only holds 2-3 people and there is only 1 so it takes a while before it stops at your floor and is empty enough for you to get on lol)
This was a video display that was really cool to watch. It repeats on a 3-minute loop, and the lights and music were exciting to watch.
After the video display, I walked up these stairs…
to reach the roof! I certainly had never seen a roof or chimney like this before!
We left Casa Batllo around 1pm and were ready for lunch, but surprisingly, there were very few options. We headed in the direction of the next Gaudi house and kept our eyes open for somewhere to eat.
Burberry store (too bad it was closed because it was a Sunday!)
We ended up finding a nice restaurant on the second floor of this fancy, old building.
I ordered the seafood risotto… it was very tasty, and it reminded me of yet another variety of paella (my third in 3 days haha)
We pre-purchased tickets for 3pm to see Gaudi’s other house, Casa Mila. We arrived at 2:20pm and they allowed us to enter early. Since the audio guides had been so helpful at Sagrada Familia and Casa Batllo, we decided to upgrade our tickets for an extra 4 Euros to add the audio guide here. It is interesting to note that people actually live in this building on the lower floors. I couldn’t imagine really living in a public museum like that, but the residents use a separate elevator bank, and visitors are escorted to the museum floors so we weren’t walking through the private apartments.
Our first stop was to go straight up to the roof. This roof was even more impressive than the one at Casa Batllo! There were tons of stairs going up and down the wavy roofline, and the chimneys all resembled warriors. Yet another example of Gaudi’s creative genius!
The roof also offered great views of the Eixample district.
Once we were finished enjoying the roof, we went down one floor to the attic level. The red brick arches that run throughout the attic were beautiful, and the museum featured lots of information about Antonio Gaudi (some of which we had already learned earlier today at the other buildings haha), and it also had examples of his ergonomic furniture designs.
Our last stop was to the next floor down, which was a furnished apartment. Unlike Casa Batllo, Casa Mila is fully furnished and set up like an apartment at the turn of the century. It was interesting to see how someone would have lived in this building over 100 years ago.
We left around 3:30pm and used our unlimited metro cards to ride the bus back to Placa Catalunya. We decided to head back to the hotel to rest and repack our bags. At 6:30pm, we walked down to Las Ramblas in search of some more souvenirs. I bought a tshirt for my dad, and mom bought a few things too.
Around 8:30, we were hungry for dinner and decided to eat at a tapas restaurant near the top of Las Ramblas. I didn’t get to take photos because we were so hungry that we ate the food before I had a chance to take out my camera haha The food was very good, and it made for a nice last meal in Spain. After dinner, we went back to the hotel around 10pm to finish packing.
On Monday, we ate our last breakfast at the hotel, and had the hotel concierge call us a taxi to go to the airport. Our flight home was uneventful… we had beautiful views of the southern coast of Spain, and they served lunch midway through the flight.
Well, that’s it folks! I hope you enjoyed reading my review 🙂 Please let me know if you have any other questions about anything! I took over 2,500 photos on this trip, so if there was something else you wanted to see a photo of, let me know and I’ll check to see if I have one.
I woke up at 7:30 and it felt like I was sleeping in haha I ordered mom some coffee from the hotel’s room service and it arrived 10 minutes later. I finished getting dressed and went downstairs for breakfast. Hotel Lleo offers a great breakfast with tons of meats, cheeses, pastries, other breakfast staples, and even wine!
After breakfast, we took the metro to the Gothic Cathedral. Entrance to the church is free as long as you enter before noon, so we made this our first stop to save a little money. We got to the front door of the church and the guard said I needed to cover my knees. Remember that black skirt I carried in my purse every day of the cruise? Well I don’t know why, but I totally forgot to bring it today! Oops! Luckily, there was a lady on the church steps selling thin brightly colored shawls for 2 Euros each, so I bought a pretty one and wrapped it around my waist to cover my knees. I guess it worked out okay in the end because that shawl was lighter and less bulky to carry around for the rest of the day than my original black skirt in its pouch.
We spent about 30 minutes walking around the cathedral. It was very detailed and pretty, but I was disappointed that there was a La Merce Festival tent set up in the front which blocked the views and made it hard to see the whole facade in one glance.
Famous ducks in the courtyard:
Next, we went down to the marina to see the Columbus Monument, the wave bridge, and the harbor. It was such a beautiful day outside, and there was lots of activity along the waterfront so it was fun to wander around and people watch for a little while.
After that, we went back up the Ramblas to the Boqueria Market. I was greatly looking forward to walking through this market, and it exceeded my expectations! It was very lively and crowded as we were there at lunch time. Vendors were selling everything you can imagine- fish, meat, fruit, veggies, candy, wine, cheese, bread, and more! We bought some fruit juice (I had the orange, strawberry, and pineapple juice and it was delicious!), and wandered around the market.
I thought this vendor was pretty funny… she sold eggs! And a LOT of them!!
I really wanted a crepe for lunch, but the line was too long!
As we were leaving the market, we walked passed a restaurant that caught my eye. It was called Wok and Walk, and they served make-your-own-stir fry dishes in cute take out containers. I picked udon noodles with chicken, mushrooms, and a sweet and sour sauce, and it was great! They cooked it very quickly and I ate my lunch as we walked the rest of the Ramblas and back to the hotel.
We rested at the hotel for a few minutes, and then took a taxi to the Picasso Museum. We arrived at 2:30pm and there was a huge line to enter. Luckily, we had pre-purchased our tickets, allowing us to skip the line. Our scheduled time was at 3pm, but they let us enter when we arrived a half hour early. We read the Rick Steves walking tour along with what was posted on the museum walls, although I found that we really didn’t need Rick Steves because it basically said the same things on the museum walls anyway. We spent about an hour at the museum, and while I enjoyed it, I don’t think it would have been worth waiting on that long line.
After we left the museum, we walked through the Barri Gotic neighborhood back to the Gothic Cathedral to catch the orange route for the HOHO bus, since this was the second of our 2 days on the pass and we had only done one of the routes yesterday. The first half of this route was interesting, but we were bored with the second half as it drives to very spread out sites all over the city and offers very little info on the audio guide. It took us 2 hours to complete this loop, approximately the same timing as yesterday, but yesterday’s itinerary was much better. If you only have one day to see Barcelona and want to do the HOHO buses, I would recommend only doing the Green route and skipping the Orange route!
Las Ramblas
Interesting sculpture near the marina area:
The Olympic Stadium
One thing I did want to point out was that our bus was basically empty. I don’t know if it is because this route is less common or because it was so late in the afternoon, but either way, the upper level had tons of open seats for nearly the entire ride!
We got off the HOHO bus when it got back to Placa Catalunya, and walked back to our hotel by 6pm. We got changed and left for dinner by 7pm. Tonight’s plan was to go back down to the beach for dinner and to watch the fireworks. We rode the metro bus from a stop around the corner from our hotel for 15 minutes to Barceloneta Beach. Our timing was pretty good because we arrived right as the sun was setting.
Once the sun set, we doubled back to the marina harbor area to check out the vendors, restaurants, and a big carnival. We ate dinner outside at a restaurant called Hispano Restaurant. They had a price fixe menu for 18.75 Euro including an appetizer, entree, dessert, and wine.
Patatas bravas
They serve a Catalunyan style of paella mariscos that is made with very thin short noodles (it reminded me of Rice-a-Roni, only much tastier haha). It was very unique and I really liked it since I always prefer pasta over rice anyway! Mom and I both ordered it as our entree, so they brought it out in the pan to show us, and then they divided it up onto two plates for us to eat.
Casaba melon for dessert
After dinner, we walked around the carnival for a little while.
After that, we walked back down to the beach to get a spot to watch the fireworks. I would say these fireworks were mediocre at best. As someone who has stood on the FDR Drive in Manhattan to watch the Macy’s 4th of July fireworks in person, these fireworks were a bit of a letdown. Apparently they were part of a competition from the La Merce Festival, so that’s why I had somewhat high expectations. The most interesting part was to see the locals react- there were audible oohs and ahhs from the crowd, so I guess the fireworks were pretty good by Spanish standards lol
The fireworks lasted about 20 minutes, then we quickly got a cab back to the hotel. Once again, it was very loud outside the hotel all night with whistles blowing, car horns honking, people screaming, and loud music playing from Placa Catalunya. I think there was actually a concert there for the Festival. After another long day of touring around the city, we were exhausted and managed to fall asleep despite the noise.
After 9 long months of planning and 12 incredible days in the Mediterranean, it was time for our cruise to come to an end. Debarkation announcements started at 7am on the overhead speakers. We had ordered room service for between 7:30 and 7:45am. At 7:35, I thought I heard a knock, so I opened the door, but they were knocking on the room next door several times as if no one was answering. They saw me come out but said it was not my food. We still had no delivery by 8am so I called the room service number and they said they tried delivering it but no one answered. I told them what happened and that they obviously tried delivering our food to the wrong room, so they said they would send up the food now. I was starving by this time, so I just ran up to Lido for one last breakfast burrito. I had planned to get room service because I feared long lines on Lido, but there was actually no wait for my burrito. Maybe people assumed it was closed and didn’t try? Or maybe enough people had already gotten off the ship? Anyway, I was back in the room by 8:10 and the food arrived from room service around 8:15am.
We had zone 30 for debarkation, and were called to go down to the lobby to get off the ship right on time at 8:45am. We got our luggage and waited in a loooong line for a taxi for 45 minutes. The taxi cost 25 Euros with the meter running for a 20 minute drive to our hotel. We did a lot of research on where we wanted to stay in Barcelona, and decided to stay near Placa de Catalunya and the top of Las Ramblas at Hotel Lleo. It was a medium-sized hotel which included a fantastic breakfast, and it was relatively inexpensive compared to some of our other options. The lobby and hallways looked newly renovated and were very nice, but the room looked dated. The room had a mini-fridge, flat screen tv, WIFI, and a balcony and it was a nice size, but it didn’t have very many outlets, so luckily we had multi-outlet power adapters or we wouldn’t have been able to charge all our devices each night.
There is a balcony behind the curtains:
Bathroom on the left, closet and safe straight ahead, front door on the right:
Our room wasn’t ready yet when we arrived at 10:30am, so we put our bags in the locked storage closet and went out to tour the city. We pre-purchased tickets for the red Hop On Hop Off bus online with 2-day passes. My plan was to ride the Green route today so we could see Park Guell. There was a 45 minute wait to board in Placa de Catalunya, and we could see the people waiting to board the Orange route had a similar wait. We were able to exchange our online vouchers for actual tickets right on the bus, but while we were walking to the bus stop, we passed a parked bus on the side of the road which is used as an office, so we had already exchanged our vouchers there.
This was the line for the Orange line:
Look for these signs on the sidewalk to know where to board the buses:
Finally on the bus, the view of Placa Catalunya from the upper level of the bus:
We spent the next 2 hours riding all over Barcelona and listening to the audio guide. They do provide you with earphones, but I would recommend you bring your own because theirs didn’t look very comfortable. We sat upstairs and were able to take tons of photos along the way…
I think those black and white things are lights, but in the daytime, they just looked like giant eyeballs to me! haha
This route also went passed Sagrada Familia and the other Gaudi buildings, but I will hold off on those photos until I get to the day we visited those sites.
It took close to 2 hours to reach the Park Guell stop on the HOHO bus (it was stop #13 out of 16 stops total). We got off the bus, turned right on the next side street, and walked 10 minutes uphill to reach the park. It was now after 2pm and we hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast at 8am, so we stopped at a small store for bocadillos con chorizo.
That was the first store we saw, and we didn’t know if we would have any other options, so we just ate there. It turns out, a few blocks further up the road, there were several other restaurant options. One of them sold gourmet popsicles, so we got those as a treat for the walk back to the bus after we left the park.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves…. I loved the park! It offered beautiful views of the city, and I loved the Gaudi style of art throughout the park. It was like Alice in Wonderland meets a Gingerbread house. We spent about an hour walking around the park and taking it all in. Unfortunately, it was crazy crowded so that made it a little hard to relax and enjoy the atmosphere, but it was still quite a feast for the eyes!
We stayed at the park until around 3pm, then made our way back to the bus stop to finish the last 3 stops to get back to Placa Catalunya.
We got back to the hotel at 4pm and checked into our room. We unpacked and freshened up and left the hotel at 6:30pm to get dinner. Our plan for tonight was to eat dinner in Placa Espana and watch the magic fountains. We took the metro for 3 stops to Placa Espana, and took our hotel concierge’s advice and ate at Las Arenas. Right when you get upstairs at the subway stop, there is a huge building called Arenas. It used to be a bull ring, and they converted it into a huge shopping center with tons of restaurants. It costs 1 Euro to ride the glass elevators to the top, and you can see a great view of the entire plaza and the city. They upper level has about 10 restaurants, so we walked around looking at the views and deciding where we wanted to eat.
We decided to eat at a restaurant called La Loma. I ordered the paella, and we had an amazing view of the sunset while we ate.
After dinner, we walked over to where they have the magic fountains. Now is a good time to mention that this weekend was the biggest festival of the year in Barcelona, called La Merce Festival. Thousands of people come to Barcelona for this festival, and it made the city extremely crowded. They had a concert outside for a pretty good pop rock band, but this meant that the escalators were closed to access the magic fountains, so we had to detour back around a huge building and up a side street to get to the fountains.
When we finally got to the fountains, it was extremely crowded, but we found a spot to stand and watch the show.
Unfortunately, another downside to the La Merce festival and the rock concert was that they did not play the music which normally accompanies the fountains. As a result, we thought the fountains were pretty, but we got bored fast and we left by 9:45pm and took a taxi back to the hotel.
Placa Catalunya was a major hub for the festival, so we could hear people honking their horns and screaming up in our room, but luckily it didn’t disturb our sleep. We went to bed around midnight after a long but exciting first day in Barcelona.
Knock, knock, knock! I woke up to a knock on our door at 6:56am… it was the room service delivery! My alarm was set for 7am, and the requested delivery window was 7:15-7:30am, so it was quite a surprise for them to arrive before I even woke up! I got dressed, and when I got up to Lido deck, they were removing the towel animals from all the lounge chairs. I was soooo disappointed! I had read tons of reviews on Cruise Critic when other people posted photos of the towel animals taking over every lounge chair on Lido deck, so I was looking forward to seeing it in person. Apparently, it was so windy that the towel animals were blowing away, so the staff was cleaning them up and I never got to see it. Today was not getting off to a good start!
I ate breakfast on Lido, then went back to the cabin to finish getting ready. Noonan came on the overhead at 7:45am and said that the ship had to sail slowly overnight due to the rough seas, so we would arrive in Marseilles at 10am instead of 8:30am as originally scheduled. I guess we could have used those 40 minutes that we spent waiting in port for the stragglers yesterday!
Our original plan for today was to share a taxi with our friends to the train/bus station in Marseilles, and to take public transportation in to Aix en Provence. Now that we only had a max of 7 hours in port, we got nervous about relying on public transit. We met up with our friends and 2 other couples, and the 8 of us talked about a Plan B. We decided to find a taxi for 8 people and ask the price for him to drive us straight to Aix.
We met at 9:30 on Deck 1 at the forward stairs because we knew it would get very busy with people waiting to get off the ship ASAP. Sure enough, there was a handful of people already there when we arrived, and tons of people lined up after us, so we were happy to be at the front of the line.
It took a long time for the officials to clear the ship, but we finally got off at 10:30am. It was soooooo windy on the dock that we nearly fell over! We went straight to the taxi stand and found an 8-person taxi van. The driver said it was 15 Euros per person to drive to Aix en Provence, so we thought it was a good deal and got in the van (Carnival offered a shuttle to the train station for 14 Euros round trip, but that didn’t include your tickets on the train, plus that would take way more time, so we knew this was the way to go.) Once we were on our way, the driver Adam offered us a full day tour for 350 Euro (44 Euro each). We had not planned to do a formal tour today because we had just finished 4 straight days in busy Italian ports, but we thought about it and realized it would cost us 30 Euros each just for the round trip drive to Aix, so for 14 Euros more per person we could see a 2nd town, so we said okay!
It took us 25 minutes to drive from the ship to the center of Aix (the train ride alone would have taken 40 minutes, not counting the time to get from the ship to the station, so we saved a ton of time by taking the taxi!). We tried to ask Adam questions about the history of the region and things we saw from the road, but his English wasn’t great and he remained quiet for most of the ride. I guess that’s what you get when you just hire a taxi driver for the day, and not a real tour guide! No worries- the price was right!
We got to Aix at 11am and Adam said he would meet us at that spot at 12:30pm. We were confident he would be there promptly because we hadn’t paid him yet. Notice how cold I look in this photo… it was much cooler and windier in France than it had been for the last two weeks in Europe!
There is a big market on Thursdays along the main street in town, Cours Maribeau, so we did some browsing and a little shopping.
We also did a little bit of the Rick Steves walking tour. I just tried to soak it all in- it was such a beautiful little town.
Rick Steves recommended a fabulous pastry shop at the end of Cours Mirabeau. My goal for today had always been to eat my way through France, so I bought a chocolate croissant and 2 mini french macaroons in chocolate and raspberry as a mid-morning snack.
Adam picked us up as promised, and we drove 1 hour to Avignon. Since we only planned to spend the day in Aix, none of us researched anything about Avignon and we had no idea what to expect! Did we make the right choice? Would we enjoy Avignon? Stay tuned to find out!!
When we arrived in Avignon, we immediately knew we made the right choice. It was an incredibly charming medieval town, with beautiful old buildings and shops lining all the streets. Adam dropped us off in the town square at 2pm and told us to meet him at 3:15 for the drive back to Marseille. We spent our time leisurely walking around the town.
I was hungry for lunch, so we found a little take out restaurant. They had a bunch of lunch specials for salads, sandwiches, and pizzas with a soda and/or dessert. Continuing with my plan to eat my way through France, I got a flat bread pizza, a can of Coke Light, and a huge apple pastry all for 5.80 Euros! We sat on a bench outside on the street and enjoyed our delicious lunch while people watching.
Adam was waiting for us at 3:15, and he drove us to immediately outside the city walls to see the famous bridge.
After that, we started the long drive back to Marseilles. Originally, Adam said we would have time to go to Arles too, but I am glad we skipped it because we got back to the port at 4:40pm for a 5pm all aboard time! Talk about cutting it close! We definitely would have missed the ship if we went to Arles too!
We looked at the shops on the pier, but I didn’t buy anything because it was all more pricey than at the market in Aix. We went back to the cabin to do a little more packing, and then went to our last dinner in the MDR. It was so sad to say goodbye to the people we spent the last 11 nights eating with!
Spring Rolls from the every day menu
Fried Shrimp
Dessert menu
Diet Apple Pie
After we finished eating, we said goodbye to our wait staff. They took great care of us all week, and they were very hard workers. This was our head waiter Hristo (Chris for short)
We went back to the cabin to finish packing and put our suitcases out in the hallway, then we went to the Fun Shops to check out the last night sales (but didn’t buy anything because the prices were the same as they had been all week!) Last night, they cancelled the Latin Nights show due to the rough seas, and it was rescheduled for tonight at 9:30pm. At 9pm, Noonan came on the overhead speaker and I’ll bet you can guess what he said! That’s right, once again, the show was cancelled because the seas were even more rough tonight so it still wasn’t safe for the dancers to perform. Instead, they moved the comedians from their usual lounge into the big show lounge, but we decided not to go. We just went back to the cabin and went to sleep early, since we had a busy day planned for tomorrow when we arrived in Barcelona!
Another early port day, another 6:15am wake up time, and another excellent burrito for breakfast! And again, we met our roll call friends in the lobby to get off the ship by 8am. Today would be the last of the 3 tours I organized with Rome in Limo, and we met our guide Rafaeli (Rafa for short) outside the port area with our oversized 8-person van. I think it was probably the same size as the 12-person vans we used in Athens and Izmir, but there were only 8 seats inside. It had a huge trunk space, so we suggested to Rafa that he should install a bathroom in the back haha
Once in the van, we drove for about 20 minutes to our first stop: Pisa! We arrived by 8:30am, and Rafa said we could have 45 minutes to walk around and take our photos. Since it was still very early, it wasn’t crowded yet, but there were a few other tourists walking around. I really wanted to take the typical photo of holding up the Leaning Tower, but I was surprised to find out that it is really hard to get the right angle for the photo! We kept walking around to different sides of the tower, and after about 30 minutes, I finally figured out a good place to stand to get the right angle for the photo haha
Miracle Square
Rafa went to college in Pisa, so he drove us around the town and pointed out some other sites besides Miracle Square, including the other leaning tower in Pisa at a church (although unfortunately, the angle is wrong to see it’s lean in this photo):
After that, Rafa drove us an hour and a half into Florence. Most of the drive was on the highway, but we had a few moments with a view of the Tuscan countryside. Our first stop in Florence was Piazzale Michelangelo, with an amazing view over all of Florence. Rafa pointed out each of the major buildings, so it was great to get an overview of everything we would be seeing for the rest of the day.
Il Duomo
Ponte Vecchio
Once we were finished taking our photos, we drove down into the city of Florence.
Our next stop was the Church of Santa Croce. Rafa dropped us off right next to the plaza, and we had 20 minutes to walk around the square. It was much more crowded here, with many large tour groups to dodge.
We got back in the van and drove through the city, and suddenly Rafa pulled up right in front of the plaza of Il Duomo! It was noon, and he said to meet him back at that spot at 1:45pm. He recommended a great little restaurant for lunch with pizza and paninis…
We spent the rest of our time walking around the plaza and shopping at the leather market. I found a leather purse that I really liked, and I was able to bargain the price down to half of what the vendor was originally asking, so I was happy with that. I also bought a leather bracelet and a few other things.
Does anyone have any idea what this sign means? haha
We pre-purchased tickets to the Academia to see the David at 2pm. Rafa helped us exchange our vouchers for real tickets, escorted us into the museum, and told us to meet him back at the van in 45 minutes. We wandered through the museum and spent a few minutes admiring the David. I thought it was well worth the price of admission to see the David statue in person. It stands 33ft tall and is truly huge and breathtaking. You are not permitted to take any photos in the museum, but some people were able to subtly sneak a photo of the David (wink, wink!) After seeing the David, we went into the room with hundreds of plaster casts. This room was a pleasant surprise, and I found it very interesting to admire so many sculptures.
We left the museum and met up with Rafa, and he drove us to an area of the straw market. He told us to find the boar at the far side of the market and that legend says rubbing its head will make you return to Florence. He also told us where to find the duplicate David status in the Piazza Vecchio so we could take legal photos. This straw market sold the same purses for the same prices as the other leather market that was closer to Il Duomo, so I was glad I did my shopping earlier when we had more time.
I think this was also when we were supposed to see the Ponte Vecchio, but Rafa only gave us 30 minutes, so there wasn’t enough time to go there. We did drive by it several times during the day and I was able to take several photos from the van, but it would have been nice to take 15 minutes to get to walk through it and see some of the shops (although I have heard they are very overpriced, so it isn’t likely I would have bought anything anyway!)
Our last stop of the day was at a local gelato shop on the other side of the river. They had about 30 flavors to choose from, and they were very inexpensive at 1.50 Euros for 2 large scoops in a cup. It was a delicious way to end the day before our hour-long drive back to Livorno.
We arrived back at the pier around 5pm for the 5:30 all aboard time. We quickly got changed and went straight to dinner.
My all-time favorite appetizer: Escargots!!
Seafood platter
Chateaubriand
Dessert menu
Apple and nuts baked in phyllo pouch
Double Roasted Pineapple
We sailed away 40 minutes late (they had paged 5 names on the overhead to call guest services, so we assumed they must have contacted the ship and the captain waited for them, although we will never know for sure), and when we did, it was very rocky. At 8pm, Noonan came on the overhead speaker to announce that the Latin Nights show had to be cancelled due to the rough seas because it was not safe for the dancers to perform. He rescheduled Latin Nights for tomorrow night, and instead, one of the dancers did a one-man show. He was fantastic!! He is very funny and we noticed he was the lead singer all week. You could tell he was improvising, as it looked like his wardrobe was one of the girl’s skirts from the Motown show, but he had 6 or 7 shows that he sang while dancing all over the theater and interacting with the audience. We all agreed that his performance was likely better than Latin Nights would have been! haha
After the show, we very carefully walked back to the cabin. I think everyone looked a bit drunk while they were walking, but it was probably just because of the ship rocking back and forth… or was it 😉 We decided to spend some time packing so we could enjoy our last night on the ship tomorrow night.
The day had finally arrived! After months of planning and anticipation, I was finally going to Rome!!! This was obviously one of the ports I was most looking forward to when planning this trip. As soon as I knew my cruise would be going to Rome, I knew I wanted to see as much as I could in 1 day since I had never been there before. The problem was, my mom spent 4 days in Rome less than a year ago and she had no desire to repeat everything she just saw. It didn’t take much time for us to realize that we should split up for this port day and each do our own thing. She ended up organizing her own tour with Rome in Limo, geared towards people who have been to Rome before (Jany even let her use the 50 Euro discount for booking multiple tours, even though I was also benefiting from that discount for my tour!)
I booked the Rome Highlights tour and found 7 people from the roll call to join me. Like usual, I woke up at 6:15am, ate breakfast on Lido, and met my group at 7:45am in the lobby. We met our driver Enrico just outside the port area at 8am. Enrico told us a tidbit that made me even happier I booked all these tours with Rome in Limo… he said that he and all the other Rome in Limo drivers arrive at the port 1 hour before our tour is scheduled to start! He had been in the port area since 7am even though we weren’t supposed to meet him until 8am! He said that way, the drivers can discuss any traffic issues they know of, and if someone has problems with their van, they have time to get a new van before the tourists get off the ship.
We drove for 1 hour and 20 minutes from the port area in Civitavecchia into the city of Rome. Our first stop was the Pantheon. Enrico left us right next to it and gave us 20 minutes to explore. I listened to the Rick Steves audio guide as I walked around and took lots of photos. Sadly, it was an overcast day, and the light streaming in from the oculus didn’t create the direct beam of light effect which I have heard sometimes happens. The room seemed brightly lit, and lacked the spiritual effect that I was hoping to experience.
Next, we drove to the Trevi Fountain, and Enrico left us a 5 minute walk away, pointed us in the right direction, and told us to meet him back at the van in 20 minutes. When we arrived, there were a few people there, but it wasn’t very crowded. Of course, we all threw coins over our shoulder in hopes the legend would come true and we could all return to Rome someday!
After we got back in the van, Enrico drove us past a few other famous landmarks. I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to walk/sit on the Spanish Steps and that we couldn’t take 5 minutes to hop out of the van to take a decent photo of these iconic Rome sites, but I guess there were just too many other things we had to get to…
The Spanish Steps
The Victor Emmanuel Monument
We got back out of the van when we reached Circus Maximus and the Palatine Hill. Enrico explained a bit of the history, and even showed us a book with pictures of how it likely looked when there was actual a stadium there…
Up next, we drove to the Roman Forum, and we had about 20 minutes to take photos and walk through the museums on Capitol Hill to meet Enrico at the bottom of the stairs.
Incredibly, we had done all of that and it was still before 11am! Our next stop was the Coliseum. Enrico dropped us off and said to meet him at the Arch of Constantine in a few minutes while he parked the car.
Unfortunately, the Arch of Constantine was half covered in scaffolding…
When I was planning this trip, my goal was to pre-purchase tickets to as many attractions as possible. My mission was accomplished with one exception: The Coliseum! For some reason, they never updated their website to sell tickets for any dates in September. I literally checked it multiple times every day, but for whatever reason, they never had tickets available for our date. I had emailed Jany a few times about the problem, and she said she was aware of it, that everyone was having the same problem, and not to worry about it. We told Enrico about it when we first met him at the port that morning, and he was able to purchase our tickets magically so that we had our skip-the-line passes by the time we arrived at the Coliseum later that morning!
After he parked the car, Enrico escorted us directly to the entrance. We literally had no wait at all, but there was a HUGE line waiting to get in (Enrico said they had at least a 2 hour wait! The skip-the-line passes were well worth the minimal extra charge!!) Enrico said to meet him at the van in 30 minutes, so I listened to the Rick Steves audio guide as I quickly walked around the first and second levels and took tons of photos. It was a bit rushed, but in the end, I don’t think I missed anything by not staying longer.
For our last stop before lunch, Enrico drove us to the top of a hill with several embassies. He told us to look through the keyhole in the doors of one of the buildings, and we had a perfect view of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica! Sadly, the Basilica isn’t visible in my photos, but you can just imagine how cool it was to see it through that little key hole!
Enrico gave us two options for lunch. We could get some take away food in a market or go to a sit down restaurant. Enrico said we had the time to sit down, so we chose the restaurant option. We went to a place called L’Insalata Ricca.
They offered very reasonable prices and a huge menu with many options for appetizers, salads, pizzas, pastas, and entrees. They also allowed us to do separate checks.
I ordered the brushetta with garlic and olive oil:
They brought out each dish from the kitchen as it was ready, but mine was last to arrive and came 15 minutes after the last person before me, so everyone was almost done eating by the time my dish arrived. The waiter said it was because we did separate checks, but that did not make sense and I think they probably just forgot about my dish.
I ate very quickly, and we paid and left to drive to the Vatican. We arrived at the back entrance to the Vatican at 2pm to meet our guide Marco. He has not given many Vatican tours before, but he was a great guide. He warned us that we would have to walk/run fast to see everything in just 2 hours. We had pre-purchased tickets online, so we went through the metal detectors and exchanged our vouchers for real tickets.
Marco took us through several rooms and halls, and stopped along the way to explain the history and art. It was very crowded inside, but Marco moved fast and dodged between people so we had to rush to keep up with him! It was worth it though because we got to see a lot.
I was amazed by the ceilings throughout the Vatican… I think I gave myself a neck ache by the end of the day because I spent so much time looking up!!
Marco explained each of the paintings inside the Sistine Chapel before we entered because you cannot talk inside. Unfortunately, no photos are allowed but it was incredible to view in person, especially considering Michelangelo had no prior experience painting before he did this project!
Once we left the Sistine Chapel, we made our way back outside and ended up in St. Peter’s Square.
Marco lead us into St. Peter’s Basilica. I was not prepared for how grand it is inside this building! The ceilings go so high and looking down the hall, it looks so majestic.
Marco showed us the tomb of Pope John the XXIII. I was very weirded out by it because his body is so well preserved despite him passing 50 years ago.
Marco then lead us out to the exit at 4pm, which was timed perfectly to see the changing of the guards!
Here are a few photos from standing in St. Peter’s Square…
We met Enrico with the van on a side street right next to the Square. Our last stop was a bit of a surprise, as it was not scheduled on our original itinerary! Enrico took us to see Piazza Navona and to get some gelato. Marco gave us 20 minutes to see the square, take photos of the fountain featured in the drowning scene from Angels and Demons, and to buy gelato. It was delicious and the perfect way to end a fabulous day in Rome!
On the 1 hour drive back to the port, I read some of the information in the Rick Steves Mediterranean Cruise Ports book to try to take in all that I had seen and learned all day. It is a jam-packed itinerary, but it was fabulous and well worth the extra expense over doing it yourself on public transit. We really saw all of Rome in 1 day!
We got back to the ship at 6pm and said goodbye to Enrico before boarding the ship to get ready for dinner.
My mom got back from her tour at 6:30pm, and neither of us was hungry at all, so she called Irena in the MDR. Irena said it would be okay if we came to the late seating in the MDR. She sat us with our usual wait staff because one of the tables was empty as they ate at the Italian specialty restaurant. It was kind of funny to have a table for 8 all to ourselves, but we were grateful that she accommodated us and we could avoid eating from the buffet.
Mediterranean Seafood Chowder
Hawaiian Fruit Plate
Duck a l’orange
Dessert menu
Pistachio and Almond Clafoutis
We finished dinner at 9:30pm and we were completely exhausted! We were very happy we didn’t have the late seating for dinner every night haha We went back to the cabin and were asleep by 11pm.
Up Next: “Under the Tuscan Sun” in Pisa and Florence!
September 16th – Amalfi Coast (Naples, Sorrento, Positano, Pompeii), Italy
Another port day, another 6:15am wake up time, and another excellent burrito for breakfast! Yummmmy! I wish I could have one right now haha The port area offered beautiful views of the sunrise over Mt. Vesuvius:
Today was the first of 3 days when I organized private tours with people from our roll call. For all 3 Italy ports, we used a company called Rome In Limo. They received excellent reviews on Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor, and it was a breeze to organize tours with their company. They have a great website which outlines the many different itineraries that they offer, and they answered all of my questions within a few hours via email (sometimes I could swear that Jany, the lady who I coordinated with, never slept because she replied at literally every hour of the day!) As a special perk for booking 3 tours with their company, Jany gave us a 50 Euro discount on each of the tours. They charged 600 Euros for the 8-person van (but we only had to pay 550 Euros with our discount), and they even offer a tour sharing website to help you fill your vans if you are not able to do so via your roll call. They might charge a little more money than some other companies, but they were fabulous to deal with, and all of our tours were great, so I thought it was worth the extra expense.
Ok, back to Naples… Our group met down in the lobby at 7:45am so we could all walk off the ship together, but we were surprised to see that today, we exited from deck 3 instead of deck 0, so we actually exited right next to where we were meeting anyway! We met our guide, Diego, right outside the port terminal. Diego was very enthusiastic and spoke near-perfect English, although sometimes we thought he offered a bit too much information and wouldn’t stop talking! haha
We all got in our 8-person van and drove 20 minutes to Pompeii. As we were approaching Pompeii, we noticed some dark clouds in the distance. Diego promised us that it would not rain today, and told us to leave our umbrellas in the van. He said that the tour would be free if it did rain. I’m sure you can guess how that turned out… it rained for about 20 minutes, but sadly, the tour was not free haha
As I have already mentioned, we requested to have a private guide in Pompeii for an extra 100 Euros total (which we paid her directly at the end of our tour). Our guide’s name was Libby and she spent 2 hours walking us through Pompeii. Libby was fantastic and worth every penny as she really made the ruins come to life.
Pompeii was empty at first, as we arrived right when it opened at 8:30am. Even though it did grow more crowded as the morning went on, Libby knew where to go to avoid the crowds.
One of the highlights of the day was visiting the brothel. It was incredible to see how well preserved it was! This engraving in the street paving stones pointed the direction towards the brothel:
This projection outside the building was how they knew which door to enter for the brothel:
The beds inside the brothel didn’t look very comfy… guess the ladies didn’t want the men to stay too long!
These frescos were featured above the doors of each room. I was shocked at how graphic they were!
Men would etch ratings for each girl on the walls of her room to tell other men if she was good or not (and if she had any diseases!)
I knew people had said it was interesting to see the brothel, but really had no idea what to expect. Libby’s commentary to point out all of the details inside really made it come alive and it was an experience I will remember for years to come.
We also visited the bath houses, gymnasium, several homes and stores/restaurants/bakeries, and the amphitheater.
Entrance to the bath houses
Inside the bath houses
A restaurant
The Amphitheater
The gymnasium- notice the mosaic on the floor of the front entrance:
After 2 hours, we paid Libby, used the rest rooms, then got back in the van to continue our day. We drove for 30 minutes along the Amalfi Coast, with a brief stop to take some photos along the way.
Our next stop was Sorrento. Diego dropped us off and said we could have 2 hours to shop and eat lunch, and he pointed us in the direction of the stores. Tons of shops and restaurants lined the pedestrian street, selling every type of lemon product you can imagine- soaps, lemoncello, candy, candles, clothes, etc.
I bought several souvenirs as we walked around the town, and I also bought a prosciutto and provolone sandwich for lunch.
There were also several gelato shops, but Diego told us to go to one called Gelato Primavera because it was famous for it’s over 70 flavors!
I ordered straciatella and mint chip
Diego met us at the arranged time, and we drove along the Almafi Coast to Positano. The drive was beautiful, and we stopped at another view point on top of the hill to see the coast before descending into the town.
Diego dropped us off in town and said we could have 1 hour to walk around. I walked all the way down the hill and down 85 stairs (yes, I counted!) to the black sand beach. The views were amazing, and it was worth the work out.
This is one of my favorite photos from the entire trip. He was painting the church up on the hill:
Now it was time to head back up the stairs…
The lemons are HUGE… just for reference, these are my sunglasses!
Diego was always aware of the time and knew that all aboard was at 6:30pm, so he said we had to leave Positano by 3:45 in case there was traffic. We got back to Naples at 5pm, so Diego drove us around Naples briefly and let us walk around the town square for 10 minutes.
When we got back to his van, Diego had bought us a little snack- he said it was Naples’ version of a canoli. It was a pastry with an orange cream filling. It was okay, but I didn’t think it was worth the calories haha Diego then drove us back to the port, and he gave us a bottle of lemoncello to share on the ship. Overall, this was one of my favorite days of the entire trip, and I hope to someday have the opportunity to return to the Almafi Coast and spend more time exploring!
We took very fast showers and arrived at dinner a little late at 6:15pm, but it was fine. We got to watch the sail away at 7pm as we ate dinner.
Udon noodles with seafood and chicken as a starter
Escargots
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Dessert menu
Amaretto cake
Sunset as we left the port of Naples
No one knew any details about the show for tonight except that it was called “Man of Steal.” It turns out, the performer was a master pick-pocket and he was the best solo performer of the cruise! He was very funny and a unique entertainer. After the show, we went back to the cabin to rest up for Rome and my favorite towel animal was waiting to greet us!
Dana's Destination Diary 